By Erin Pearson
Warning: Graphic and distressing content
Convicted murderer Adrian James Basham is fighting to keep the house he killed his wife in, telling a court he needs to sell the property to help pay his legal bills.
Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions has applied to confiscate the house on Seagrove Way in Cowes, arguing it is tainted property because Basham killed estranged wife Samantha Fraser there and then attempted to stage the scene to look like a suicide on July 23, 2018.
Adrian Basham (right) outside the Supreme Court in March.Credit: Paul Jeffers
The court heard that the pair were joint tenants and that following Fraser’s death, Basham became the sole owner under the law of survivorship.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Ruddle SC said that sole ownership had occurred as a “direct result” of Basham’s offending and that the property should therefore be forfeited to the state.
She said not only was the property used to help commit the murder, but Basham’s current interest in the $545,000 property was substantially derived from his offending.
The house in Cowes where Basham killed his estranged wife Samantha Fraser.Credit: Simone Fox Koob
Ruddle said Basham had laid in wait for more than two hours for Fraser to return home, before killing her and staging his crime as a suicide in the garage.
“This was a significant and premeditated murder. A very serious example of a tainted property,” Ruddle said.
“[Basham] laying in wait ... then set it up in order to disguise his offending.”
Basham, 46, was sentenced to life in jail in February for what Justice Lesley Taylor labelled a murder of the worst kind.
The trial had heard Fraser had changed the locks on her windows and doors, installed security equipment and re-coded the electric garage door to fortify the home after separating from Basham in 2017.
On July 23, 2018, Basham waited nearby for her to return from taking the children to school before following her into the garage.
There, the judge found, he beat Fraser and attempted to make the scene look like she’d taken her own life. His DNA was later found under Fraser’s fingernails and on a rope.
When the mother of three failed to collect her children from school, police were notified. An autopsy later found Fraser had more than 40 separate injuries.
Samantha Fraser was murdered in her Phillip Island home in 2018.Credit: Nine News
At the time of the killing, Fraser was days away from giving evidence against Basham on an allegation of marital rape.
Basham was charged with his estranged wife’s murder on August 2, 2018. In April 2022, following a five-week trial, he was found guilty. He is currently serving a minimum 30-year sentence.
On Tuesday, Basham appeared in the Supreme Court via video link without a lawyer, representing himself.
He told the court he’d been unable to obtain legal aid to represent him following the trial and wanted to use the Cowes property to fund private lawyers going forward. This, he flagged, could include a bid to appeal the jury’s guilty verdict, which he still disputes.
Samantha Fraser (left) and CCTV images of Adrian Basham on his motorcycle and outside her home.
The court heard Basham also currently owns another property, estimated to be worth more than $2 million, at Smiths Beach.
While the Director of Public Prosecutions has not attempted to confiscate that address at this stage, the court heard it remains restrained to secure compensation applications for Fraser’s three children and her parents.
Any compensation payment would fall to the state to pay, Ruddle said.
Basham said he had a $1 million tax bill and owed $50,000 in rates and fines relating to the Smiths Beach property, and faced losing it if the Cowes property was not returned to him.
He is also fighting to have the contents of the Seagrove Way property released to him, which includes a Toyota ute and carpentry tools. His father James Francis Basham is fighting to keep the black 2018 Kawasaki Ninja motorbike his son used to drive to and from the murder scene.
The motorbike was also seen driving past Fraser’s home the day before her death. The rider, the court heard, was wearing the same helmet and distinctive jacket as Basham on the day of the murder.
Justice Lesley Taylor will hand down her decision at a later date.
If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.
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